Packaging surgical absorbent cotton



Sept 10, 1935. F. B. KILMER ET AL I ,3

I I PECKAGING- SURGICAL ABSORBENT COTTON Filed Aug. 9, 1955 7 gw c tom -P /o If .B. ffflnier M if V f' RJ-Y. Hawllzarna iii;

Patented Sept. 10, 1935 PACKAGING SURGICAL ABSORBENT COTTON Frederick B. Kilmer and Roy R. Hawthorne, New

Brunswick, N, J assignors to Johnson & J ohngon, New Brunswick, N. J., a corporation of New ersey Application August 9, 1933, Serial No. 684,458

1 Claim.

Surgical absorbent cotton has manifold uses in the surgical and other fields, vast quantities being used for applying lotions, cleansers, creams, powders, and ointments, to various parts 5 of the body.

Regardless of whether it be employed surgically or as a first-aid dressing, or for toilet purposes, the handling should be under aseptic environment conditions so that there may be reasonable assurance of not only the portion intended for immediate service being clean and sterile, but of the remaining portion being adequately protected against the hazard of contamination and infection.

Heretofore, surgical absorbent cotton has been supplied sometimes in the form of a strip or batten encased in a paper wrapper and rolled upon itself, the wrapper being necessarily more or less destroyed in tearing away the cotton intended for emergency; sometimes the roll of cotton with a strip of paper between its convolutions has been packed in a so-called hermetically sealed carton having a, simple lift or cover which once raised operated to expose the stock to contamination and infection; sometimes the practice was varied by threading the end of the roll in a slit in the carton, which was obviously disadvantageous be cause the draft through the slit increased the short fibrous structure oi the stock and because the stock, after the first cutting, was necessarily always exposed; sometimes the absorbent cotton was packed in block form with intervening paper separators and, while this practice had certain advantages, it possessed the disadvantage that when the stock was released from compression, as by raising the top, the tendency was for the blocks to propel themselves out of the carton :newhat in the of a ,iacls-in-th'=-boxg \cmetimes t e absorbent cotton was coiled a or B 1 acontainer and dis- Lining it through an openhe": practices were more unique rac ty, they, nevertheless, of requiring direct sufiered certain other faults it is the purpose of ate and to overcome icy, without proinvention system of miscuou;

cossic 33d e o for the selee' ntity required a the salsa i same orderiy protected state as obtained when it was initially packed and sealed. I

A characteristic feature of the invention is the pleatfolding of surgical absorbent cotton in a protecting casing and in laminated state where- 5 by it is possible for the user selectively to withdraw one or more pleats and, by severing the protected stock at the bend or linkage point, to avoid direct handling and to leave the remaining stock adequately safeguarded against the en- 10 try of dust, dirt, and other sources of contamination and infection. In consonance with the inventive thought, and in the advancement thereof, the encased pleatfolded goods is stowed in a carton so constructed and arranged that when 15 opened there is provided a pair of marginal straps which overlie the topmost fold and restrain it from casual displacement.

The invention, in its preferred embodiment,

is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, 20

forming a part hereof, wherein Figure 1 is a, perspective viewof the new package in its sealed state.

.Fig. 2 is a perspective View showing the top divided along lines of severance to permit the 25 raising of the cover and to leave end straps which are efiective to restrain the pleatfolded stock, selective abstraction of which is indicated in broken lines.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the laminated 30 stock.

Fig. i is a perspective View of the stock and its protecting casing or jacket.

Fig. 5 is a side elevational view of the encased stock in its reversely folded state, and 35 6 is fragmentary sectional detail of a filled carton showing how the stock is restrained when the cover is raised.

arting from the conventional practice of g elongated strips from a web of bulk stock 49 crease of object? nable 18'; n and superimposed in any desired to form a bat 6, which the-user optionally may use in its full thickness or from which he may split one or' more films or ribbons. The lam ed is encased in a protecting wrappe e casing I, which may he Under the preferred practice the encased pleatfolded absorbent cotton is packed in the carton, Figs. 1 and 2, having the characteristic that it has, when its contents are accessible, provisions which marginally engage the topmost pleat and so prevent its casual displacement. In the furtherance of this the top of the carton has scored or weakened areas 9 extending clear across the same inwardly of the end walls and parallel therewith, the weakened areas being continued through the lapped and glued side wall portion of the top. When the lapped portion is freed from the side wall, as by the insertion under it of a knife, and the weakened areas are parted there results a lift or cover Ill and end straps II which overlie and engage the marginal ends of the topmost pleat, restrain it from casual ejection, and by maintaining it in its normal flat transverse plane safeguard it and the balance of the stock from the entrance of 'dust, dirt and other sources of contamination and infection. This arrangegoods.

multiples thereof, as the occasion may demand, without necessitating promiscuous handling of the stock and without entailing bunching or balling thereof as obtained under the old practice of pinching, pulling and tearing. It will be observed that the cover has a tucking flap I! for cooperation with a slit It or, alternatively, which may be simply thrust inside the carton and held to place by pressure of the pleatfolded stock exerted against the side wall. a

Having described our invention, we claim:- A package for the selective dispensing of surgical dressing and including a sealed wall portion having a flap extension lapping another wall and marginally secured thereto, said sealed wall portion having lines of weakness adjacent its side margins whereby a pull on the flap will release the wall along 'said lines of weakness leaving stress members to resist dispensing action of the goods and also providing a tucking cover which 20 cooperates with the stress members to seal the FREDERICK B. KILMER. ROY R. HAWTHORNE. 

